According to the International Dark-Sky Association, pristine night skies are an endangered habitat. Researchers estimate that a child born in the United States today has only a 1 in 10 chance of witnessing a truly dark sky!

The region surrounding Redding offers many locations for spectacular star gazing, including Lassen Park to the east, Whiskeytown National Recreation Area to the west, and Mt. Shasta to the north.

The Lava Beds National Monument- about 90 minutes north east of Redding- is included as one of the least polluted areas on the Regional Light Pollution Map produced by the Instituto di Scienza e Technologia. The monument is taking steps toward becoming a ‘Dark Sky Preserve,' which is an internationally acknowledged status recognizing the quality of the night sky. It has even retrofitted outdoor light fixtures to reduce light pollution and meet IDA (International Dark Sky Association) standards.

Redding is also home to the Schreder Planetarium, which features an Evans & Sutherland Digistar 3 projection system to provide a high quality simulation of the night sky. The Planetarium offers a variety of shows and programs to appeal to school-aged children as well as adults.

About an hour east of Redding is the Hat Creek Radio Observatory. The Observatory is home of the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) which consists of 350, 20-foot telescopes!